Desjarlais: Totally Not a Hypocrite

Rep. Scott DesJarlais, the “pro-family” and “pro-life” congressman from Tennessee who supported his wife’s two abortions and encouraged one of his many mistresses to have one as well, says it’s totally unfair of you to think he’s a hypocrite. Because his views have “evolved” on that issue.

Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN), the former physician turned anti-abortion Tennessee Republican congressman, says he hadn’t given abortion as much thought as he “should have” when he supported his first wife’s decisions to have two abortions, and that he often used “very poor judgment” during his first marriage and the separation that followed it.

He now looks back with regret, he says, on the sexual relationships he had with two patients, three co-workers and a drug company representative while he was chief of staff at Grandview Medical Center in Jasper…

According to the News Sentinel, the court document states that DesJarlais’ first wife had her first abortion when she was on an experimental drug that raised potential risks with the pregnancy. The second abortion occurred when the pair were having problems in their relationship. DesJarlais told the paper his views on abortion have evolved, and that charges of hypocrisy were unfair.

“I guess as a physician, I was a fairly objective person,” he said of his beliefs at the time. “I try not to be a judgmental person. [Abortion] was just not something that I put as much thought into as I should have, in retrospect. Going back, if I could change and do things differently, certainly I would.”

Oh, and he was just being forgetful when he lied about all of this and attacked those who made the accusations prior to the release of all the documents from his divorce that proved them true. So stop picking on the poor guy, will ya? He may have lied and did the exact opposite of what he has supported as a politician, but that totally doesn’t make him a liar and a hypocrite.

The list of wrong with this guy is so long that hypocrite doesn’t quite cover it. Infidelity, sex with patients, sex with co-workers when he was chief of staff (and therefore in a position of authority over them), waving a gun around when his wife was leaving him, etc. If a democrat was running for office in my area with that sort of ethically challenged history I’d vote a write in candidate before I’d vote for him, what is wrong with the republicans in his district?

If a democrat was running for office in my area with that sort of ethically challenged history I’d vote a write in candidate before I’d vote for him,

If a democrat with that same record ran for office, Fox would run segments about him every hour and demand all sorts of investigations. But since he’s a republican, not a word of this will be mentioned.

I am less concerned with the adultery, hypocrisy, womanizing, etc. than I am with such a frank admission of being a complete dumbshit.

If there is one non-negotiable trait required in a Congressman, it’s that you use sound judgement. Seriously, that’s the whole point of the job.

John Hinkle

Area Man:

If there is one non-negotiable trait required in a Congressman, it’s that you use sound judgement.

One wonders if the “sound judgement” of his constituents will lead them to elect him next time. One wonders…

F [disappearing]

You’re supposed to do that sort of growing up earlier in life. Minus the controlling-women’s-bodies thing, which is the opposite of growing up.

Evolve this, Representative Douchelord.

thebookofdave

Oh, I get it now. He’s not an accessory to the murder of innocent pre-born kids, like those evil Librul anti-lifers. He’s just a guy who once made an honest mistake, who shouldn’t have to live with that mistake for the rest of his life. He learned his lesson and moved on. He only made the same mistake a few more times, if you define few as a number somewhere between five and a hundred.

The problem isn’t with his former errors of judgment, which he totally evolved out of. It’s with the relentless partisan witch hunt of the press. Just because you let yourself off the hook for the same acts you seek to criminalize others doesn’t mean your trying apply some kind of double standard. The real victim of this little misunderstanding is Scott DesJarlais. Why don’t you pick on the media, for a change?

Probably why he went into politics. Having sex with your mistress isn’t such a career-killer.*

*If you’re a republican.

dan4

d.c.wilson@19:

I was talking about his medical license, not his political career. Even if his regret about having sex with two of his patients is genuine, that shouldn’t prevent his aforementioned license from being revoked (just as genuine remorse from a criminal doesn’t prevent him/her from facing criminal charges for his/her crime).

As a commentator mentioned on the politicalwire.com website about this story, isn’t a doctor having sex with patients pretty much an automatic license-puller?

I think it varies a lot by state and by medical board. It is well understood that doctor-patient sex is always unethical, given that doctors are authority figures and that patients are a vulnerable population. As best as I can tell from the Google machine, it’s not always an automatic license-puller. It is however an automatic severe censure.

But yeah, as if we needed more evidence that this guy is a complete dirtbag, his “mistresses” appear to have been cultivated under highly unethical, possibly illegal circumstances.

bradleybetts

@dugglebogey #$

“No, my problem is that he’s a goddamn MEDICAL DOCTOR who can’t figure out how to NOT get a woman pregnant! He’s grossly incompetent at life!”